Friday, February 15, 2013

Bat For Lashes - Rest Your Head (MANIK Ghost Pines Rework): The fabo new Bat For Lashes lacks the punch of the electro reality, so I am happy to find any reworks laying a beaty framework on it all. OK this one isn't my favourite, but there is a paucity of them out there, so I'm taking the parts where I can get them.

Communist Daughter - No Children (The Mountain Goats cover): Oh yes, let's take one of the most intense and dramatic Mountain Goats songs are redo it as earnest folk apocalypse, yes!

Cris X - Funeral Parade Of Roses: Some brooding textures from the new album Guya / Greed.

Finley Quaye - Even After All (DJ Beset Edit): You don't always need a comlex rework, sometimes just a little polish and rework makes an old gem shine.

First Aid Kit - Winter Is All Over You (Baauer Remix): But then sometimes you want a total rework. You want to take precious and delicate folk music and wrap it in some Baauer trap shit. He's this generation's Switch/Sinden.

Frightened Rabbit - Old Old Fashioned (live): From the album Liver! Lung! FR!, this is kind of the perfect way to hear this, hands down, bottoms up.

Gold Panda - Trust: Gold Panda tones it down for this new single producing a restrained and seductive plodder that swirls it oh so perfectly.

Joshua Hyslop & Anna Scouten - What Have I Done: This is some Damien Rice styled beauty right here.

Julie Doiron - Our Love: Doiron is back with a new album So Many Days

Lisa Bozikovic - Midnight Ice: For fans of Julie Doiron, be sure to take note of Canada's next folk superstar offering. Here we have a new track from Lisa Bozikovic's new album This is How We Swim.

M83 - Steve McQueen (MAPS Remix): Modern M83 is so overbearing that you wonder how you can have an appropriate remix of it, so I always appreciate it when a producer can reign in the excess without sacrificing the goodness.

Matana Roberts & Stefan Christoff - Duet for Abdelrazik: Such a stunning duet. Love it. The story behind this is something out of the most horrifying Kafka policestate nightmares, but read about the project, hear more of it, and order it here http://howlarts.net/releases/

Mount Eerie - I Walked Home BeholdingMount Eerie - Instrumental 1: I think I was caught off guard at how much I really enjoyed the brooding postrocky vibes of Ocean Roar. Highly recommended.

David Krakauer - Monadel (John Zorn): We've already established that John Zorn is a nonhuman, most likely a ultraverse spanning demonspawn of such mindbending powers that to look in his eyes is to dissolve one's soul. And we know he's brilliant, and I will listen to pretty much any album he's involved in. Masada Book Two is now up to VOLUME 18. Book of Angels keeps the hot flavour going, this time with David Krakauer in the driver's seat. Highly recommended for fans of Masada works and klezmer jazz.

Elliott Brood - Graveyard (Feist Cover): While not quite meeting the highest highs of the original, it is fun to hear a new take on this soon-to-be Canadiana classic.

Eraas - Briar Path (Remix V3): Minimal brooding beats can do just well simmering in their own reverb.

Ghost Beach - Miracle (Viceroy Remix): I'm reminded of that Matt & Kim "HEY LETS SHOUT ABOUT HOW HAPPY WE ARE" and then I'm reminded how good keytars and bongos sound in electro pop.

Giraffage & XXYYXX - Even Though (Blackbird Blackbird Remix): Now this is a threeway I can get behind. But that'd make it a foursome.

Metz - Wet Blanket: Metz are pure mindblowing fierceness. Get in to it.

Nosaj Thing - DistanceNosaj Thing - EclipseBlue ft Kazu Makino: The new album Home is just lovely, and a dive back in to the IDM pool that once spawned him.

Pantha Du Prince & The Bell Laboratory - Photon: HOT ALBUM ALERT. Elements Of Sound is the first album of 2013 that I heard that will assuredly dominate best of the year lists. It is a minimal masterpiece. Highly recommended.

Tame Impala - Feels Like We Only Go Backwards: With all of the love for Tame Impala I felt a bit awkward that I just wasn't super in to them, so I decided to say that I really do love this track.

The Deer Tracks - Okta Crash: The interplay of the banigng drums with the pixie voice is a perfect match in my books.

The O'My's - The Wonder Years ft Chance the Rapper & Nico Segal: Love the chill life-dwelling 70s80s vibe of this track.